How to Read and Why

By: Harold Bloom

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Paperback | 2 October 2001 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

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288 Pages

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21 x 14.5 x 2.5

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Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.
Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.

Industry Reviews

John Banville The Irish Times Bloom is one of the last...of his kind...one of the greatest educators of our time...Wonderful...Bloom writes with passion of those writers whom he loves, and whose work for him affirms life. John Sutherland The Washington Post Book World Harold Bloom is one of the great literary critics of his time...How to Read and Why is...the testament of a veteran. Michael Pakenham The Baltimore Sun Superb...A wonderful, entertaining book...extraordinarily wise, nourishing, and beautiful.

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Fiction Modern & Contemporary Fiction Non-Fiction Literature, Poetry & Plays History & Criticism of Literature General Literary Studies Literary Theory

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Preface	p. 19
Prologue: Why Read?	p. 21
Short Stories
Introduction	p. 31
"Bezhin Lea"	p. 32
"Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands"	p. 34
"The Kiss"	p. 37
"The Student"	p. 39
"The Lady with the Dog"	p. 40
"Madame Tellier's Establishment"	p. 43
"The Horla"	p. 44
"Hills Like White Elephants"	p. 46
"God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"	p. 47
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro"	p. 48
"A Sea Change"	p. 50
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find"	p. 52
"Good Country People"	p. 52
"A View of the Woods"	p. 53
"The Vane Sisters"	p. 54
"Tlon, Ugbar, Orbis Tertius"	p. 58
"Gogol's Wife"	p. 61
Invisible Cities	p. 62
Summary Observations	p. 65
Poems
Introduction	p. 69
Housman, Blake, Landor, and Tennyson	p. 70
"Into My Heart an Air That Kills"	p. 71
"The Sick Rose"	p. 71
"On His Seventy-fifth Birthday"	p. 72
"The Eagle"	p. 73
"Ulysses"	p. 74
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"	p. 79
Song of Myself	p. 89
Dickinson, Bronte, Popular Ballads, and "Tom O'Bedlam"	p. 94
Poem 1260, "Because That You Are Going"	p. 95
"Stanzas: Often Rebuked, Yet Always Back Returning"	p. 97
"Sir Patrick Spence"	p. 99
"The Unquiet Grave"	p. 102
dAnonymous	p. 104
"Tom O'Bedlam"	p. 104
Sonnet 121, "'Tis Better to Be Vile Than Vile Esteemed"	p. 111
Sonnet 129, "Th' Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame"	p. 113
Sonnet 144, "Two Loves I Have, of Comfort and Despair"	p. 114
Paradise Lost	p. 116
"A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal"	p. 121
"My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold"	p. 123
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner	p. 124
Shelley and Keats	p. 129
The Triumph of Life	p. 129
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci"	p. 134
Summary Observations	p. 138
Novels, Part I
Introduction	p. 143
Don Quixote	p. 145
The Charterhouse of Parma	p. 150
Emma	p. 156
Great Expectations	p. 162
Crime and Punishment	p. 166
The Portrait of a Lady	p. 173
In Search of Lost Time	p. 181
The Magic Mountain	p. 187
Summary Observations	p. 193
Plays
Introduction	p. 199
Hamlet	p. 201
Hedda Gabler	p. 218
The Importance of Being Earnest	p. 224
Summary Observations	p. 231
Novels, Part II
Moby-Dick	p. 235
As I Lay Dying	p. 239
Miss Lonelyhearts	p. 245
The Crying of Lot 49	p. 249
Blood Meridian	p. 254
Invisible Man	p. 263
Song of Solomon	p. 269
Summary Observations	p. 272
Epilogue: Completing the Work	p. 277
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

How to Read and Why

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

Other Books By Harold Bloom

The Anatomy of Influence

Literature as a Way of Life

Till I End My Song

A Gathering of Last Poems

Cleopatra : Shakespeare's Personalities

I Am Fire and Air

The Bright Book of Life

Novels to Read and Reread

The Anxiety of Influence

A Theory of Poetry